Most modern homes, office buildings and other structures use forced air heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems (HVAC systems) to provide heated air, cooled air or ventilation to the interior of the structure. In forced air HVAC systems, heated, cooled, or outside air is forced through a series of ducts and directed into the occupied spaces through a system of vents or registers. In most applications, the HVAC ducts are located beneath the floor of the structure, and thus the outlet vents or registers are usually located on the floor of the structure.
Although floor mounted heat registers provide an easy and cost effective method of providing conditioned air to the interior of structures, they do have a number of drawbacks. Typically, heat registers have a number of fins forming a grate which is intended to prevent large objects from falling through the register and into the duct work. However, in order to allow the free flow of air through the grate, the openings in the grate must be large enough so that air can flow through the register relatively unimpeded. Unfortunately, the register openings are large enough to also allow a wide variety of objects to fall through the grate and into the duct, such as dirt, coins, rings, dog and cat hair and other small objects. Consequently, many people, especially those with dust allergies, are forced to expend great sums of money on professional duct cleaning or on electrostatic filter systems in order to reduce the number of airborne contaminants in the dwelling.
Typically, the fins on the register are angled slightly in order to deflect some of the air in a predetermined direction in hopes of increasing the circulation of the conditioned air throughout the room or structure. Nevertheless, because the registers are usually located near the walls, in many homes the conditioned air gets trapped behind curtains, furniture and other obstructions. The obstructed air does not circulate and therefore does very little to heat or cool the living space. Accordingly, there exists a need for a cover plate for covering heat registers which prevents the accumulation of dirt and other objects in the ductwork and which helps to circulate air within the dwelling.